The 28-year-old midfielder gained 19.38 per cent of readers votes after not making the list of players voted for by Goal.com’s worldwide team of editors, which was won by Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo.

Schweinsteiger finished narrowly ahead of Premier League pair Luka Modric and Fernando Torres, who received 17.44% and 17.43% respectively.

Two South American players finished joint-fourth with Liverpool striker Luis Suarez and Barcelona forward Alexis Sanchez both receiving 11.2%.

Experienced defensive duo John Terry, 8.57%, and Carles Puyol, 5.72% came in next, while Inter's Dutch playmaker Wesley Sneijder, a former winner of the award taking 4.37% of votes, after the Nerazzurri and Netherlands both suffering disappointing campaigns.

Sneijder’s ex-Inter team-mate Samuel Eto'o received 2.9%, finishing narrowly ahead Nuri Sahin, who endured a frustrating debut season at Spanish giants Real Madrid, but won 1.8% of the vote.